Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a number of superconductive optoelectronic devices and superconductive optoelectronic apparatuses with a basic substance Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 or Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 ;M.sup.2+ (M=Ca,Sr,Cu) of superconductive-conjugate photoconductivity. The superconductive optoelectronic devices and apparatuses of the present invention are novel and vastly different from those of prior art in that the invention uses a particular combination of the Bi-based superconductive oxide material and the basic material Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 or Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 ;M.sup.2+ (M=Ca,Sr,Cu) of special superconductive-conjugate photoconductive character which reveals photoconductivity below the critical temperature of the Bi-based superconductive materials relevant to the basic substance Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3.
The invention also relates to a superconductive optoelectronic apparatus with Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 or Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 ;M.sup.2+ having a plurality with diversity of the superconductive optoelectronic devices produced therein in the form of integrated circuit at ultra high density, e.g. in two dimensional array form.
The invention stems from the inventor's important discovery of a phenomenon that a certain basic substance reveals photoconductivity at temperatures below the critical temperatures of superconductivity T.sub.sc of relevant superconductors, and such photoconductivity of that basic substance is in a conjugate relationship with the superconductivity of the relevant superconductors.
In the ensuing description, the "basic substance" refers to the substance with the above mentioned character, or that substance which reveals the superconductive-conjugate photoconductivity to be defined below. The basic substance to be used in the present invention is Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 or Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 ;M.sup.2+ (M=Ca,Sr,Cu) and the relevant superconductors are the Bi-based oxides.
Here, we define "Superconductive-Conjugate Photoconductivity" to be a substantially new type of large photoconductivity in host insulators which emerges in several steps with decreasing temperature in accordance or correspondence with the critical temperatures of superconductivity in relevant conductive substances, all based on the discoveries and inventions disclosed by the present applicant before. "Photoconductivity" and "Superconductivity" are conjugate with each other in a certain group of systems, such as Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 and the Bi-based oxide superconductors.